Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is an action game for the PlayStation. It allows the player to take on the role of Jax Briggs as he and his base operative, Gemini, attempt to track down the Black Dragon and bring them to justice.


The game is chronologically the first in the Mortal Kombat storyline, as its events take place even before Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. The story of the game involves Kano freeing his gang, the Black Dragon (No Face, Tasia, Jarek, and Tremor) from a maximum security prison and Jax, seeking revenge for the slaughter of his Special Forces comrades at the hands of the Black Dragon, undertakes a mission to stop them from retrieving an artifact of great power, the Eye of Chitian. The true power of the artifact is shown in the ending that it can open portals to other realms when Jax uses the artifact to teleport himself and Kano back to Earthrealm after defeating him.

Playable Characters

Non Playable Characters


  • Of all the Mortal Kombat games, Special Forces is considered to be the worst. This has much to do with the fact that many of Midway's staff, including series co-creator John Tobias, had left the company in 1999 for various reasons while the game was still in production. (Tobias eventually founded Studio Gigante, the creators of Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus, a game with some similarities with Mortal Kombat, but unlike the latter, the game never ran for a sequel.)
  • This was the second Mortal Kombat game developed by Midway that was a platform rather than a fighting game, after having tested the waters with Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero in 1997. Tobias intended to work on a series of platform games to expand the Mortal Kombat universe, including titles centering around Baraka and the Shaolin Monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao; only the latter was actually released by Midway (in 2005) despite having sat on the drawing board for many years.
  • Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was rushed to completion following Tobias's departure, and sold so terribly that Midway placed the series on hiatus in preparation for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. It was the last Mortal Kombat game to be released until the release of Deadly Alliance - widely regarded by gamers as the title that revived the once-sagging MK franchise - in 2002.
  • Sonya was originally supposed to be playable alongside Jax in the game, but due to Midway making numerous changes to the game after Tobias left, she was omitted. In early shots of Special Forces at the time when Sonya was still in the game, it listed her code name as "Panther".
  • The Medipak items have the Red Cross logo on them, which is not allowed to be included in video games by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Principal Games
Updates and Ports
Adventure Games
Army of Darkness | Black Dragon | The Brotherhood of Shadow | Deadly Alliance | Edenian Resistance | Elder Gods | Lin Kuei | Outer World Investigation Agency
Red Dragon | Seidan Guard | Seidan Resistance | Shirai Ryu | Shaolin Monks | Special Forces | Tekunin | Titans | White Lotus Society | Wu Shi Academy
Main characters
Ashrah | Baraka | Blaze | Bo' Rai Cho | Cassie Cage | Cetrion | Chameleon | Cyrax | Daegon | Dairou | Darrius | Drahmin | D'Vorah | Ermac | Erron Black | Ferra & Torr | Frost | Fujin | Geras | Goro | Havik | Hotaru | Hsu Hao | Jade | Jarek | Jax Briggs | Jacqui Briggs | Johnny Cage | Kabal | Kai | Kano | Kenshi Takahashi | Khameleon | Kintaro | Kira | Kitana | Kobra | Kollector | Kotal Kahn | Kronika | Kung Jin | Kung Lao | Li Mei | Liu Kang | Mavado | Meat | Mileena | Mokap | Moloch | Motaro | Noob Saibot | Nightwolf | Nitara | Onaga | Quan Chi | Raiden | Rain | Reiko | Reptile | Sareena | Scorpion | Sektor | Shang Tsung | Shao Kahn | Sheeva | Shinnok | Shujinko | Sindel | Skarlet | Smoke | Sonya Blade | Stryker | Sub-Zero | Takeda Takahashi | Tanya | Taven | Tremor | Triborg
Guest characters
Alien | Batman | Captain Marvel | Catwoman | Dark Kahn | Darkseid | Deathstroke | The Flash | Freddy Krueger | Green Lantern | Jason Voorhees | The Joker | Kratos | Leatherface | Lex Luthor | Predator | RoboCop | Spawn | Superman | The Terminator | Wonder Woman
Film and Television
Mortal Kombat (1995) | Annihilation | Conquest | The Journey Begins | Defenders of the Realm | Legacy | Mortal Kombat (2021) | Scorpion's Revenge
Tour | Videos | Comics | Music | Card Game | Actors